This is a week late, but I think it’s still important. Remember last week, Todd called from Portland about the Eagle Creek Fire and Gino’s house being in its path? Well, I’m pretty sure that Todd is the great fan Todd from M & B days. After he gave you the top 12 rules for listeners (and I think started the list with number 8) you rewarded him with the autographed copy of the Face/Off poster. We all wanted to be as good a caller and worthy listener as Todd. Good to hear him again!

The comment from Christina about 9/11 brought back the memory I have of that day. At the time I was working for a company called San Joaquin Helicopters. I am retired now but at that time I was an FAA licensed aircraft mechanic.

San Joaquin Helicopters at the time had the state contract to fly and maintain all of CDF’s (Now called Cal Fire) aircraft. These are the helicopters and aircraft that drop water and fire retardant on forests fires!

Normally in the hanger there where a lot of different radios on playing different kinds of shows including M&B, and music, but not on 9/11. That day every radio in the hanger had the same station on. The TV in our lunch room had the coverage of what was happening on. At some point someone brought a TV out into the hanger and we where able to watch the coverage. Needless to say we were not getting a lot of work done.

At some point the FAA grounded all aircraft in the U.S and all civilian aircraft had to land. About 2 hours after the FAA grounded all aircraft we were all called into a meeting and told that because we (Cal Fire) are considered to be emergency services we were given a waiver by the FAA and we where able to fly that day.

I remember speaking to one of our pilots who flew in that morning! He was telling me how strange it was to not hear any traffic on the radio while he was flying in. He also told me how when he got close to Travis Air Force base the base contacted him and wanted to know who he was and why he was still in the air? After he ID-ed himself the air traffic controller at Travis let him continue on to Mather Air base in Sacramento.

There where fires burning that Tuesday in 2001 so as hard as it was, all of us had to find a way to focus on the work at hand and get the planes back in the air to fight those fires! It was one of the hardest days at work that I can remember, but I am proud to say that all of us, the mechanics and the pilots, were all able to stay the course, to keep our aircraft in the air fighting the fires!